Brendan Ryan’s Earl Weaver special highlighted a five-run 1st as the Chiefs completed the three-game sweep of the RailRiders with a 7-4 win. Syracuse starter Aaron Laffey pitched five innings of two-run ball, giving up six hits and a walk while fanning one to get the win. Matt Grace and Trevor Gott were both dinged for a run before Nick Masset shut the door with a scoreless 9th. The Chiefs defense helped out with five double plays. Ryan led Syracuse’s 13-hit parade with three followed by Matt Skole and Scott Sizemore with two apiece.

Harrisburg put up crooked numbers three times in the first five innings and survived a late charge to double up Bowie, 6-3, and snap a three-game slide. Newcomer Jaron Long let in a run on a homer and five hits total over three and 2/3rds, with no walks and two strikeouts. Andrew Robinson got the next seven outs in relief for the win. The Senators pounded out 10 hits, with Christopher Bostick, Shawn Pleffner, and Zach Collier each collecting two, and drew 10 walks, with Bostick, Wilmer Difo, Spencer Kieboom, Brenden Webb, and Stephen each getting two BBs.

The two teams made donuts on the Wilmington scoreboard for seven innings before both teams scored (sconed?) once in the 8th. The scoring drought went on for three more innings before Andrew Stevenson’s RBI double and Jose “The Orange” Marmolejos’s RBI single in the 12th put the P-Nats on top to stay and complete the five-game sweep with a 3-1 win. Wirkin “For The Weekend” one-hit the Blue Rocks for five scoreless innings, walking two and fanning one. The win went to Justin Thomas for blanking the Blue Rocks in the 10th and 11th while R.C. Orlan notched the save with a 1-2-3 twelfth. Lineup bookends Stevenson and Narciso Mesa combined for four hits, three walks, and two stolen bases to lead the Potomac offense.

The Suns scored in six of eight “ups” to take the game, 9-3, and the series 3-1 from Hickory. Pedro Avila started and gave up a run on two hits and a walk over four innings while striking out four. The win went to Matt Crownover, who spun three shutout innings of relief with no walks and two K’s. Ian Sagdal homered twice and drove in five while going 4-for-5 to lead the Hagerstown assault that saw every batter reach base on a dozen hits and a half-dozen walks.

Avila is clearly a rapid riser in the system when you consider that he leapfrogged a number of candidates (including accomplished college products like Grant Borne) and other Dominican promising arms seemingly above him in the pecking order (like Valerio and Fuentes) to Hagerstown this early. His arrival is therefore big news for those of us who are watching the upper echelon of organizational prospects. Obviously the Nats see something, and with his last start, so do we. The pundits will start chirping about Avila soon enough. Nice to see that age-ism will not be a ceiling. Wonder how that will translate into the Robles plan…..

Gil. That was the eye raiser heading north on
95: Bourne left in viera. Pistol Pete on Anderson
Army
Love the utility in Sagdal .
We forget that Robles needs to rest those legs
In cool hags evenings after winter/ spring
In 80F plus .
If anybody wants to read a great baseball book
Lefty Gomez written by his daughter :

Great Gomez line : good living ? Clean living and
A fast outfield . I think Anderson has that this season !! Lol

Looking at the stats for the big club last night got me wondering whether the odd move of dumping Frieman so quickly and quick promoting Keys to play 1B at Syacuse wasn’t done as Clint Robinson insurance. Keyes is off to a quick start and Robinson may be turning back into a pumpkin.

The MLB bench will get some shake-up whenever Revere returns, and then when Turner is promoted. C-Rob’s spot on the pine does seem to be more tenuous, particularly with den Dekker showing some life and Heisey providing heroics. I recall that the Nats had Drew playing some 1B in the spring, so presumably he could be Zim’s backup.

It also does not look like we will be seeing Gott in DC anytime soon. Only 3 Ks with 6 BBs and a WHIP of 1.839 in 10.1 IP is not getting it done. Solis and de los Santos look like they’d be the next guys up for the bullpen right now.

I don’t think the Keyes promotion relates to Robinson. He is a righthanded bat and Murphy can play 1B, just as denDekker is the next lefty bat off the bench. I also cannot see the Nats pulling the plug impatiently on Robinson.

Be that as it may, Keyes is a better outfielder than the size of his tuchus would suggest. And he can, of course, play 1B. It’s now or never for him — why not return him to Syracuse, when there is no appreciable upgrade with Frieman?

The first real promotion (because Ballou and Keyes essentially bounced back), is DLSantos. Like Rivero and other “stuff” prospects, his results are finally warranting the enthusiasm that prompted his acquisition for Detwiler and his promotion last summer despite mediocre statistical performance. He dominated early at AA and so now he will discover a new level. Whether he stays there when Jordan returns is unclear; Syracuse will have its own difficult decision-making, especially given Massett’s active role.

The Heisey decision looks genius now. The Nats have been turning people out of the blue. Jaron Long, who started yesterday, appears to be one of the latest such acquisitions.

Jeff, I’ve missed you. :)! Wirkin Estevez is a total mystery to me, and I welcome Luke’s analysis once he gets his rhythym under him. He has shown improvement, but where he is at in terms of potential and his percentage as a recovery from his injury is a bit like divining about Erick Fedde. Speaking of which, look at Erik Davis now!

As for others, Phillips Valdez was ticketed by some to Harrisburg, but ended up at A+. Anyone with the GCL 13 pedigree is good by me! Luis Reyes appears to be the man to get an opportunity to sink or swim, and to fill innings until the lower rung cnadidates, be they Lee, Crownower, or Jefry Rodriguez warrant promotion. JefRod is another one of those in the AbelDeLosArsonist mold of finally showing some promise. But Rodriguez has started well in other years. Hopefully he can sustain his early showing and is on his way to becoming what we’ve been told he had going for him. With Boone Whiting and Reyes taking up space, the Nats are, to me, waiting for the Hagerstown rotation to earn their way up.

Yes
Indeed .
Pitching holes plugged with scouts getting to
Some far outposts in offseason / March to add on.
Next thought. Max Schrock not long for hags.
Does Harris and Co promote Dulin first or
Jeffries off XST?
Where is Wooten in XST activity ?

Bummer ! Agustin placed in DL @ hags .
His ABs must be going to what Anderson
Did Sunday : page in LF, Sagdal @1b.
The Royal farms connection in DC must be the
Coaches we know now that the Royal guy
Left for Arizona. Fish out. Arguelles in @ Burg?
Jake Lowery should end up in PotomAc ??

My style is more “show me.” That’s why Soto is not in there for me yet. I should have put Abel somewhere in between 40-45. My oversight.

There are quite a number of folks on the outside looking in who have gotten off to good starts. So flash forward a number of months and they may yet rise and rise substantially. Obviously people like von Vossen are getting noticed.

But the point is more to recognize folks here that no one ever talks about because we are churning through the same names. And, to smoke out someone who sees these guys play to tell us what does not yet reflect in the stats and the game quotes.

Jeff – cool how many of these are newbies, huh?

Mark – Bryan Harper just keeps getting it done. He can’t help that Oliver Perez knows how to bunt better than Nats position players. As they like to say, they are auditioning for all of the teams. Sooner or later Grace and Solis will graduate — somewhere. If ever there was a player who would get a push because of extenuating circumstances, like 400 million of them, it would be the lefthander from Nevada.

All good points. In a normal situation, Bryan Harper would have been out of baseball 2-3 years ago.
But, he just keeps plugging away and it makes for a great talking point.
He already has all the money he’ll ever need and if he just wants to keep pitching until he gets called up to the show or his arm falls off, good for him.

Koda Glover is gonna be in the Nats ‘pen soon, be it September or the start of next season.

The only bad part about his numbers is that he only has 39.2 IP since getting drafted. But in those innings, he has 53Ks, just 4 BBs and only allowed 25 hits and 6 earned runs. His ERA (1.36) and WHIP (0.72) look like typos and I expect it’s only a few weeks before he’s heading up Rt. 15 to Harrisburg.

And as we all know, once they get to AA, call-ups for the fast-risers are eminent.

I totally agree, assuming he continues to dominate as he rises. AA ball will indeed be the key test for him. If he passes that one without much trouble, he’ll likely be a bullpen mainstay by the summer of ’17.

Thanks KW. For some reason, baseballreference.com has started crashing my browser (and consequently my computer), but I can still access on ipad. A few names catch the eye from 2013 who haven’t appeared yet this season:

I guess my overriding comment would be that, despite the fact there’s a number of prospects on that roster who have come to (more) prominence since then (at least to us Nats fans), there very few who have made AA by 2016……

Mejia is the everyday 2B at Potomac. Not a good fielder. Has the patience of a doctor with multiple malpractice lawsuits. But he can hit. Silvestre is on the DL as well, and believed to have come down with Nationals elbow.

I think we need to keep in mind that it was 2013, and it is still only 2016. That GCL team has many players who started there and who are very much in the mix for major league careers. And yes, by the end of 2016, a good number will have reached AA — so far several on this list.

Injuries happen, too. Silvestre missed all of last year with an injury but was the pitching force of the Potomac championship playoff run in 2014. He is still young and still a lefthanded starter.

Voth, Pivetta, Simms, and Thomas were soon promoted up. But that is not to be held against the developmental potential of the team. Going up one level a year is optimum, but by no means a must, especially with Latinos coming in at high school age and with English as a second language. This will continue to prove to be a special squad. We will just appreciate it more in about 4-5 years.